Field of the Invention
Embodiments of the invention generally relate to wind turbines and, more particularly, to manipulating the induction factor for a rotor to increase the turbulent mixing process in the wake of a wind turbine.
Description of the Related Art
Wind turbine arrays (i.e., multiple wind turbines arranged into wind parks) are becoming an increasing popular technique for generating electricity from wind energy. Using a plurality of wind turbines in a relatively small geographic region allows wind energy to take advantage of economies of scale. That is, a wind turbine array may offer cheaper construction costs, shared infrastructure, and lower maintenance costs than if the same number of wind turbines were built individually.
However, the layout of the wind turbines in an array affects the efficiency and the annual energy production (AEP) of the array. Specifically, the wake of one turbine may limit the efficiency of a downwind turbine. In some instances, the effectiveness of a downwind turbine is reduced by 65%. In total, the efficiency for a wind array may be 75% of its nominal performance (i.e., if none of the wind turbines were affected by the wake of other upwind turbines). Spreading out the wind turbines increases the efficiency of the array, but this may reduce the advantages of the economy of scale. Furthermore, in many cases the amount of land that can be used is restricted. Thus, the better solution is determining a way to increase efficiency of wind turbines in an array without increasing the area of the wind park.